1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foldaway baby carriage and a folding mechanism employed therein, and more particularly, it relates to a foldaway baby carriage having a frame whose cross-directional size is defined by members which are bendable in association with an operation for folding members forming side surfaces of the frame, and a folding mechanism employed therein.
2. Description of the Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,581 (issued on Mar. 2, 1982), granted to Kenzou Kassai, describes the basic structure of a foldaway baby carriage, which is of interest to the present invention. When the baby carriage disclosed in this patent is folded, its horizontal, vertical and cross-directional sizes are reduced as compared with an opened state, so that the baby carriage is easy to carry and store in the folded state.
However, the aforementioned foldaway baby carriage still has improvable points.
In particular, it is difficult to reduce the weight of this baby carriage, conceivably because of a relatively large number of components.
The baby carriage includes a large number of components, particularly because movement of members forming side surfaces of its frame must be interlocked with that of members defining the cross-directional size of the frame through a relatively complicated mechanism. Since planes of movement of the members forming the side surfaces of the frame are not identical nor parallel but perpendicular to those of movement of the members defining the cross-directional size of the frame, the mechanism for interlocking these members in operation must be capable of performing the so-called three-dimensional operation.